From k9radio  Fri Sep 30 15:28:59 2005
From: Ronald Fuka 

I'll save you the time for looking it up.  Here it is.

It is called the R-S-T report.

Readability, Signal strength, & Tone

Readability:
	1.Unreadable
	2.Barely readable; occasional words distinguishable
	3.Readable with considerable difficulty
	4.Readable with practically no difficulty
	5.Perfectly readable

Signal Strength
	1.Faint; signals barely perceptible
	2.Very weak signals
	3.Weak signals
	4.Fair signals
	5.Fairly good signals
	6.Good signals
	7.Moderately strong signals
	8.Strong signals
	9.Extremely strong signals

Tone ( only used for code) C W
	1.extremely rough, hissing note
	2.Very rough a.c.note; no trace of musicality
	3.Rough, low-pitched a.c. note; slightly musical
	4.Rather rough a.c. note; moderately musical
	5.Musically modulated note
	6.Modulated note; slight trace of whistle
	7.Near d.c.note; smooth ripple
	8.Good d.c. note; just a trace of ripple
	9.Purest d.c. note

uncle ron

    `
From: "john" 
To: "Ronald Fuka" 
Sent: Thursday, September 29, 2005 4:12 PM
Subject: Re: 5x5 and HAM

>> -->Yeah 5x5 means signal strength and readability of the signal.
>> -->Readability goes 1 to 5, 5 being perfectly readable.
>> -->Signal strength 1 to 9, 9 being extremely strong.
>> -->Tone 1 t0 9, 9 being purest dc
>> -->tone is only used for code, cw.
>> -->5x9 signal perfectly readable, extremely strong.
>> -->
>> -->
>> -->> I recall using a term "5x5" in the military to talk about status of 
>> a system.
>> -->> john
>> -->>
>> -->>
>> -->> : "The term five by five refers to the two measures of signal strength
>> -->> and readability; it is derived from older HAM radio instruments that
>> -->> were scaled from zero to 10 with 10 being the strongest. A five by five
>> -->> would be interpreted as 50 percent signal strength and easily readable,
>> -->> perhaps with some static or band clutter. A 10 by two would have a
>> -->> strong signal, but be broken and hard to understand, while a two by 10
>> -->> would contain a weak signal, but be perfectly clear. A 10 by 10 would
>> -->> be very strong and crystal clear."
>> -->>
>> -->> Glad you asked!
>> -->> The word "HAM" was the station call letters of the first amateur
>> -->> wireless station operated by some amateurs of the Harvard Radio Club.
>> -->> They were ALBERT S. HYMAN, BOB ALMY and POOGIE MURRAY.
>> -->>
>> -->> At first they called their station "HYMAN-ALMY-MURRAY". Tapping out
>> -->> such a long name in code soon became tiresome and called for a
>> -->> revision. They changed it to "HY-AL-MU", using the first two letters of
>> -->> each of their names. Early in 1901 some confusion resulted between
>> -->> signals from amateur wireless station "HYALMU" and a Mexican ship named
>> -->> "HYALMO". They then decided to use only the first letter of each name,
>> -->> and the station CALL became "HAM".
>> -->> I saw this on a few sites but can anyone confirm the story?
>> -->>
>> -->> ----
>> -->>
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